If you are curious about web hosting you may find that there are terms people use but they may not explain. This is going to cover the top 10 terms used with web hosting.

Availability ~ Also called Uptime indicates how often your website is available. A web host should have at least 99{a737ea6eacc5e5a7aa8e2f034282618270eab64ed4a65a3d17cffd2a3c582da7} uptime on their servers, which means your website may be down no more than 24 seconds per day. No service can guarantee 100{a737ea6eacc5e5a7aa8e2f034282618270eab64ed4a65a3d17cffd2a3c582da7} uptime, this is an impossibility.

CPanel ~ This is a type of control panel. There are other control panels available but cPanel has taken over a large portion of the market. What this does is provide you a simple way to access the various tools available from your web host.

Domain Name ~ Also called the web address. This is what people type into their address bar to get to a website. Actually domain names are simply an alias for an IP address, but it translates that address into something we can remember rather than being a string of numbers.

Domain Name Registration ~ Many web hosts will offer to register a domain name for you when you join. They will also offer to allow you to transfer your other domain names to them for them to register. This allows your domain name to registered to you so others can not use that name.

File Manager ~ This is a tool available in your cPanel. It allows you to have access to the files that make up your websites and allows you to make changes internally. You can upload and download files and web sites.

FTP ~ Also called File Transfer Protocol this is another way to transfer files and is similar to the File Manager. You can upload and download websites and files with this program. There are free programs you can use to work from your desktop with the files on your server.

IP Address ~ While you may recognize the domain name by the actual name, your computer sees that address as a series of numbers broken up with periods. An example would be 152.81.124.105, you can see this four part number is broken up with the periods. Your own computer also uses an IP address to communicate online.

Server ~ This is a computer that provides a type of service to clients. One type of server is used for networked computers allowing the computers to share resources. In regards to web hosting, it provides the ability to allow online users to access your website.

URL ~ A shortened version of Uniform Resource Location, or what you call a web address. This is what you will type into your browsers web address bar to get to a website.

Web Host ~ This is the service that provides servers for website owners to use. With their servers your website becomes accessible to clients, customers and users who want to visit your website. You could think of this like a party host, who provides access to their house.

These terms should help you learn what is important about web hosting services.

When the registration process for our domain names with a legal Domain Registration Company has gotten over, then we can start our work to host our sites or blogs with any of the hosting providers. Our task never ends with domain registration and in order to make visible to everyone in the world through Internet, it is important to host our sites in the server of the hosting providers. This is the way to make our site live on the Internet. To start the process of hosting it is necessary for buying any of the packages or plans from the web hosting provider. After buying the package, they will provide some of the facilities and features to access the accounts and make some changes in our sites.

Two of the plans which are more important and common, they are shared hosting plans and dedicated server hosting plans. We can choose any of the plans or packages depend upon our requirements and needs. Once we place our blogs or sites on any of the hosting companies’ web servers, then our site will also linked to the Internet. In general, there are two types of OS that are used to run the web server in web hosting companies. Without knowing this kind of details and other basic technical information, it is impossible hosting our account without proper guidance. It is true that some of the hosting providers also provide the facility to register our domains. Thus, these are some of the information about web hosting and web hosting companies.

In order to have your website online, you’ll need to host the web files on a computer that is accessible from all over the world. What a web hosting provider does is to host your website on such kind of computer (namely web servers) and connect it to the world via Internet. Web Hosting can be understood as the home (the space and structure) for your website.

Throughout years of development, web hosting business had matured into an industry where mom and pop webmasters are able to host huge websites with tons of complicated web functions in a relative low price. Hosting connections are fast nowadays. Bandwidth and disk storage cost are as well cheap and very affordable.

Generally, commercial web hosting can be grouped into two major categories: Dedicated server hosting and shared server hosting. A dedicated server hosting simple means having the entire server serving only one website; while on the other hand shared hosting means a server is shared by several websites. So far shared hosting is still used by the majority as the cost is much cheaper when compare with a dedicated server hosting.

When selecting for the right hosting, pricing, reputation, hosting features, quality of customer supports, and real customer feedbacks are often the major consideration factors. Consumers should note that web hosting is a luxurious business and hosting companies are trying all their best in order to win market segment. Be aware of scams and over promised hosting offers – work only with hosting company that runs on a clear refund policy.

A good web host is crucial for your success online. In fact it’s the most important fundamentals for your website. Be very careful when it comes to web hosting shopping.

If you are new to web hosting but confused about all of the different features that web hosting plans come with then sit back and relax, we are going to give you a quick introduction to the world of shared hosting plans and their features.

In this article we are going to concentrate on the features of Linux Shared Hosting Plans because that is the most common type of plan out there. Sorry windows but when it comes to shared hosting this is the battle you loose.

The core most important features

Amount of Disk Space / Web Space

Web sites are made up of various types of files. Those files could be Text files, Databases, Images, Video Files and anything else that your web site will need.

Basically more of those files that you have the more Disk Space you will need. Amount of disk space you will need largely depends on what kind of web site you have.

Usually video and image files take up most of the space but having large Databases of Information can quickly eat up your space as well. Plus don’t forget that if you receive tons of email and you never delete it, that also counts against your amount.

When ordering your hosting plan, make sure you choose a Web Hosting Provider that gives you enough of disk space.

Having enough of disk space is important but be warned of those services offering Unlimited Disk Space. As of right now an Unlimited Disk Space hard drive or storage drive does not exist, so it is highly unlikely that hosting companies can offer unlimited space as well. It’s physically just not possible so best is to stay away since with that kind of “unlimited” space you really don’t know what you are getting and wouldn’t you rather want to know what you are paying for anyway.

Amount of Bandwidth Transfer.

Every time someone visits your web site, all of the data (images, videos, text) for that specific page is transferred to the requester. This transfer of data over the internet is referred to as Bandwidth Transfer. More data you have and more users you have requesting it, more bandwidth transfer you will need.

Just like Disk Space this is also an important amount to have enough of.

Control Panel

Control panels make the job of managing a web hosting account easy. They simplify and automate day to day web hosting tasks. They allow you to: easily browse all the files, Add email accounts, Check Web Mail, Create FTP accounts, See disk space usage and much more. There are hand full of well established control panels used by hosting companies. Some companies chose to develop their own as well. Some of the well known control panels are: CPANEL and PLESK and they provide everything a webmaster should need to manage their hosting account. If you are a novice make sure you choose a hosting company which includes one of those two control panels.

Email Accounts for your domain.

Receiving emails at your own domain is an important feature of every web site. If you want to make your web site look professional this is a must.

Most of the hosting companies should offer this feature as part of the hosting package.

FTP Accounts.

When it comes to uploading files from your local computer to the web hosting server, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is number one tool of choice. This is a must for every hosting plan. Look for hosting companies that include plenty of FTP accounts in your hosting plan.

Automated Script Installers.

Most of the web sites use some kind of script (Forum, Picture Gallery, Shopping Cart… etc). Usually to run one of these scripts, webmaster would have to download it and install it them self. This can be hard and tedious task which requires skills.

This is where automated script installers come in place. These nifty programs have a large collection of most popular scripts and with an easy wizard interface allow you to install scripts on your web site with only few clicks.

If you are just starting with hosting then this is a must feature. Look for hosting companies which offer these two popular auto installers: softaculous and fantastico deluxe

Programming Languages

If you are planning to run any kind of scripts or to have your web site access database then your hosting plan needs to come with one or more supported programming platforms. Some of the most common ones are: PHP, CGI, PERL, RUBY. These programming languages should be supported by most hosting companies.

Site Uptime Guarantee.

Having your web site available and running at all times is something that every webmaster should strive for. This is why you need to choose a host that can guarantee certain percentage of uptime for your web site. Look for a hosting company that offers at minimum 99.9{a737ea6eacc5e5a7aa8e2f034282618270eab64ed4a65a3d17cffd2a3c582da7} uptime guarantee. In those rare cases that your site is not up for the guaranteed percentage of times, hosting company should issue credits or partial refunds.

The connotation of the technology renowned as the World Wide Web is not only exceedingly increasing but also rightly so. In these times of advanced technologies, the internet has made it possible for us to do a variety of chores from the comforts of our home and without having to foray outside. Such is the dependence on the internet that it is nearly infeasible to envisage a life without web.

However in real terms, one should also comprehend the role of web hosting services and servers; as because of them it is possible to host different web portals on internet. Web Hosting services make it feasible for individuals and companies to make their respective web portals accessible to one and all through the web. For small requirements such as a basic web page, content are uploaded by FTP (File Transfer Protocol, but the most wide spread one is the HTTP and there are also instances where IMAP is brought into play.

Dedicated Hosting innately means utter trustworthiness, reliability and guaranteed uptime. If you happen to lay your hands on a web hosting service provider who has Dedicated Servers, rest assured that they will endow you with 99.99{a737ea6eacc5e5a7aa8e2f034282618270eab64ed4a65a3d17cffd2a3c582da7} uptime. Now let us come down to the different types of web hosting services accessible in the current market scenario. Free web hosting is accessible but has limited functionality and relies largely on advertisements.

Shared hosting is much popular and places your web site on a server where several others are already placed (may be in hundreds or thousands). A shared website may be hosted with a reseller but all the domains in here share common server resources such as RAM and CPU. Reseller Hosting allows the clients using the server to proffer web hosting services themselves.

The varieties are many in number; reseller hosting service providers can have their own dedicated servers or can have a collocated server. This is a superb web hosting solution which can assist individuals and corporations in more ways than one. VPS hosting or Virtual Private Server Hosting actually divides server resources into virtual servers, wherein hardware is not affected and the resources are allocated likewise.

Web hosting is nothing but a service that allows its customers to have a space on the World Wide Web to showcase their websites on its computer servers which are connected to the internet all the time. Servers are actually very powerful computers with extremely large hard drives. The space in these servers is rented out to websites on the internet.

Things to know about web hosting

On the internet every server has a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. It is numerical. If a server is thought to be as a building where apartments are being rented out, it will be easier to understand how it works. Each unit which is rented out to individual websites is the same as each rented out apartment in the building. Each unit that is rented out also has a unique address. Thus, when a person wants to start a website, he needs to buy a unique address (the web address) from a server.

There are different kinds of website hosting services available. Most of the packages offered by web hosting companies give the buyer certain capacities as a user. For instance, some website hosting companies offer scripts that allow forms, guest books, interactive functions, bulletin boards, etc. for web site owners with professional purposes. Commercial packages include bundle business tools such as credit card processing and point of sales packages. The scope of activities web hosting companies do also differ according to the package a user chooses. Small – scale file hosting and web page is the most basic. In it, a user can upload files via FTP or File Transfer Protocol. Some internet service providers are known to this service without any charge. Web site hosting for personal use is usually free, inexpensive and advertisement – sponsored while those for business purpose usually have a high expense involved.

Free website hosting is no doubt convenient but it comes with drawbacks. Usually the server will be running banner advertisements and pop up’s on the website. If the website owner wants them to be removed, an alternative pay plan has to be chosen. Another consideration that website owners opting for free service from web hosting companies have to put up with is that the website address that they have been allocated with will be an extension of the server’s address for e.g. subfolder name after the domain name of free web hosting service provider. In view of the various constraints hosting companies put on website owners who opt for free space, it is better to pay a sum of money for buying a domain name.

Nowadays, there are many web hosting providers with various hosting services. When you first visit the providers’ homepage, you are probably unsure of what kind of hosting service you should get for your website. Thus, here are some of web hosting terminologies to help you understand better about web hosting.

1. Shared Hosting:

Shared hosting is a quite common hosting service, primarily for small to medium websites. When using it, your website will be hosted on a server that is able to contain hundreds or thousands of websites. Because there are plenty of websites on a shared server, in order not to affect other sites you are often limited about bandwidth and storage capacity. In contrast, when other sites use too many server resources, it also affects your site. Therefore, the average price for the Shared Hosting is only about 4-5 US Dollars. There are 2 types of Shared Hosting: Linux and Windows.

2. Linux Hosting:

With this one you can use the tools that are designed on Linux. It is consistent with PHP and Perl language websites and other common open source code such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal etc. You do not need to know the command lines in Linux to be able to use Linux Hosting since there’s graphics interface in the hosting management that is easy to use.

3. Windows Hosting:

If your website is designed using ASP language and Microsoft’s tools, Windows Hosting is the right choice. The price of Windows Hosting is usually higher than Linux one.

4. VPS Hosting:

VPS stands for Virtual Private Server, in other words it is a virtual server. A strong configuration server can install multiple virtual machines. When owning VPS, you have the management power to one of the server’s virtual machines. VPS Hosting is used for the high traffic sites. You can fully restart VPS as you want because there is only your site on VPS. However, when the server goes down, the entire VPS on that sever also collapse.

5. Dedicated Hosting:

If your website has a high traffic, Web Hosting becomes important. You might not use the Shared Hosting or VPS one as these 2 services often contains a lot of other sites that might affect your site. Using the Dedicated Hosting, you will be supplied with a separate server, which contains only your site, and you will have full control of it. As a result it is also more expensive than the Shared and VPS one.

6. Managed Hosting:

The hosting services (especially VPS Hosting and Dedicated Hosting), are normally divided into 2 types: Managed and Unmanaged one. With the Managed Hosting, the configuration installation on the server will be done by technical staff. If you already know how to install it, you might get it. This one is also more expensive than Unmanaged one.

7. Colocation:

Similar to the Dedicated Hosting, you also get your own server for your site. However, in the Dedicated Hosting, you rent the server from the provider. In this one, you might use your own server. The provider will locate your server in the Data Center or in other words, Colocation is a space rental service and infrastructure services to connect the servers to the Internet. Colocation is only interesting for the big companies who want to have a full control of their activities. The price for the Colocation service is the highest.

Are you confused about web hosting and the terms that are been used on the website. Here is a few descriptions of web hosting terms to help you understand further.

Bandwidth:

The term “bandwidth” is used as a name to measure the traffic on your website. Every time a visitor opens your website, more bandwidth is used. If a visitor clicks on another page of your website then this is also counted as use of bandwidth. With many companies these days, you will get unlimited bandwidth included with the package price but you must be aware that a fair use policy may apply to ensure the stability of the company offering the service.

If your website allows users to upload or download files, then this could use a significant amount, online flash games or videos that are uploaded to your site will also use a lot due to the videos and games that have to stream to play. For high traffic video and game sites, you may require a dedicated server as a shared server will be very slow for your visitors and your success will be less likely.

Diskspace:

This is the term used to describe the amount of data (files) you can upload to your server. All of your websites files, videos and games will take up the diskspace. Videos and games have larger file sizes and more diskspace will be required.

Running a website needs a web host provider. A website, in a sense, is quite like a virtual real estate. To set up one, you require an address as well as a platform for building the site. A web hosting service provider is like a real estate agent of the online world.

Web spaces, are rented, whether on a quarterly, monthly or a yearly basis. The web server that’s used is a very powerful computer that runs only on specialized high-speed connections. These computers have a big firewall protection. Subscriber packages of these websites include storage space on the web server, domain registration, email services and auto-responders. Besides these, there are several web hosting packages that offer software for shopping carts and also access to some add-on software applications that could be run on your site , about web hosting development.

Features

While zeroing in on a web hosting service provider, there are two options to choose in terms of the operating platforms available and the type of the scripting language used. For the sake of information, operating platforms are available in two forms. One is Windows and the other in Linux. While the former is designed for working on Windows machines, the latter is specifically designed for website server applications. There are many web hosting companies that provide both Linux and Windows platforms to their customers. There’s also the option of free hosting. For the uninitiated, free hosting is a good option available for hosting your website. While this could be fine for personal use, it is best not availed if the reason is professional. There are many problems that plague free website hosting services. Limited website access, generic domain names and limited bandwidth allotments make it difficult for a customer who is trying to customize his business presence across the internet.

Types

Several subscribers purchased shared or virtual hosting because of the reason that there are numerous websites online. This web hosting place is the directory of the web host server that is shared between various subscribers. There’s also the option for dedicated hosting where the subscriber has to pay for solely using the website server. Big business organizations running their own database as well as several software applications mostly operate off such a dedicated server. A virtual server is best suited for those running small businesses or a site only for personal use.

Internet has probably been the most radical and life changing technological innovation of our times. It has changed the way we communicate, gather information, shop, and almost every other aspect of human life. So, it’s not surprising to see the unprecedented rate at which the cyber world is expanding. From personal portals to online business establishments and from nonprofit organizations to forums and blogs, the needs the website owner of today have a diverse set of requirements and new web hosting companies are cropping up each day to meet this demand.

However, this intense commercial activity has also led to a sense of utter bewilderment for anybody who is just about to step into the wondrous online world and establish his/her presence on the internet. The process often starts with choosing a web hosting company and package, which can be truly trying prospects, given the cut throat competition in the market. So, if you would like to know more about web hosting before you embark on your online adventure, here is just the information that you will need.

What does a web hosting provider do?

A web hosting provider sells space on the servers maintained by the company to website owners so that they can put their website on the World Wide Web. Unlike a desktop in your home, servers are extremely expensive depending on how powerful they are and their features besides there is also a significant overhead cost to contend with when maintaining a server. All of this makes it impossible for a website owner to maintain one on his/her side. The technical support that the process entails is another reason why website owners prefer to go with a hosting company.

Why pay for it when you can get hosting for free?

A person looking to establish his/her online presence can either choose paid hosting or partner with one of the free hosting websites. This brings us to the million dollars question; do these establishments really offer free hosing? In a single word the answer to that question is a resounding, ‘no.’

Like all other for profit ventures, they too have to generate money from somewhere and they do this by putting dozens of advertisements on your site. This not only slows the performance of you site and is extremely irritating for your visitors. It also mars the professional look of your website. Plus, you lose all the money that you could have made by using the advertising space.

Another distinctive disadvantage is the lack of your personal domain name; because your url will always have some indication of the fact that you are using a free hosting site, this can seriously dent the credibility of your organization. Also, the companies will have policies that will prevent you from selling or advertising about certain products.

Choosing the best hosting company

This brings us to the option of paid ghosting; while a far cry from the free hosting, choosing a web hosting provider from the milieu of companies can be a daunting task. Some of the crucial factors that you will need to look for is the amount of bandwidth and the disk space vis à vis the price of the package that the company offers. Apart from this, it is also imperative to ensure that the company has high customer support standards and offers round the clock tech support. Then there are the auxiliaries like the type of CMS, the ability to upgrade your package, the extras being put on the table and much more.

It does not end there; you also have to choose the right hosting package

In your quest for the best hosting partner, you will find that most companies offer a myriad of packages and hosting types; for instance, you can choose between shared hosting, dedicated servers, virtual private web server or collocation.

Shared hosting: The website owner is offered a small section on the hosting company’s severs; this is ideal for online start ups and first time website owners who do not want to hassle with the kernel of the host servers.

Dedicated hosting: By far the most expensive of the three options, this choice is suitable for large and complicated websites that need considerably more bandwidth, disk space, software implementation, custom server management etc. Dedicated hosting is s suitable choice for content restricted sites, large intranets and mission critical websites.

Collocation of VPS: In this option, a partition of the server is offered to a website, so while you get a lot of the features and benefits associated with dedicated servers, you do not end up blowing your bank account.

The type of website that you intend to host is also a consideration

The type of website that you intend to host will also have an impact on the type of plan that you need. For instance, you could easily use shared hosting for a personal or small business site; on the other hand, for an Ecommerce site, you may want to look into VPS hosting.

Because the reliability and performance of your web hosting provider will have a direct bearing on the success of your website; it is essential to make a well researched and prudent decision. After all, changing from one hosting company to another, while possible, is an immensely cumbersome task that will keep your site offline for at least 12 to 24 hours. So, think about all the business you will miss and then make the correct choice.